Portable computing devices, in the form of smart phones, tablets, laptop computers, GPS navigation devices, have become ubiquitous over the last several years. The users of these devices, especially the smart phones and GPS navigation units, frequently use the devices to call up maps for directions, to locate a business, a home, or a geographical location. Presently, map data may include geocodes for identifying points-of-interest, geocodes for identifying “route to” points to which routing directions cross or terminate, and it may include other, non-geocode data associated with the points-of-interest.
The map data available to portable devices were initially limited to geocodes identifying streets, from which driving directions could be generated. As the technology area has grown, some off-the-street data has been included from which walking directions and public transportation directions could be derived. The data used for walking directions typically enables routes to be generated over public paths that are constructed strictly for pedestrians. The data used for public transportation directions typically enables the use of bus routes and train routes, both of which are publicly accessible.
The non-geocode data associated with the points-of-interest generally takes the form of street addresses, businesses, phone numbers, and the like. This data is not always accurate, and it is often still not accurate in present-day databases. This is often because of the way in which it is generated. For example, a street address may be associated with a geocode point-of-interest by an individual reviewing a satellite image and taking their best, educated guess at which geocode should be associated with which point-of-interest.
Much of the map data, until recently, has been centrally collected and compiled by the entities making it available for use on the portable devices, with the result being that most data is collected from publicly accessible geographical areas and property. Another issue with map data that is centrally collected is, with all the roads in a city, region, or state, the entities performing the collecting cannot keep up with the pace of changes to keep the map data up to date.
Crowd sourced map data is also presently compiled through Internet portal sites such as Wikimapia.org, and it can be useful in keeping map data up to date. However, since map data is relied upon by so many within society, and for so many different purposes, collecting map data from the general public raises concerns about reliability.